Tweeting For Your Business

I’m not really big on people telling me what to do with my Twitter account, but when it comes to tweeting for your business, it’s a whole different animal. They say you’re supposed to engage 80% of the time and advertise 20% of the time on Twitter. I would agree with that, but many businesses seem to think it should be 100% advertising and no engagement with followers whatsoever.

From what I’ve seen, tweeps will flock to the business that manage to get it right. The ones who don’t end up annoying followers and chasing customers away. Here are some examples of both instances:

Note: I had the official accounts and images of tweets posted originally, but some people get a little crazy when they see anything negative about their business. I have decided to remove the names and tweets of the businesses I refer to negatively and replace them with similar examples.

Local Pawn Shop (name removed)– We have local pawn business that uses their Twitter account to just blab about the price of random items. There is no engagement with followers. They never throw a mention in the direction of anybody. It’s all ads. Who would follow this? FAIL

Examples:

Motorola Droid only $59.99. We only have one, so get here now!

We have a great selection of old video games! Stop in now and get some!

We got a load of new jewelry in. Stop on in and check out what’s new!

@picklebarrelsf– This local sandwich shop owner has it right. She uses her company name and logo as well as her real name on the account. She engages with followers regularly and when she’s promoting her business, she provides an incentive for the customer. WIN

Examples:

@cmsreport – Owner of the CMSReport website. He engages with his followers on a personal level and tweets useful CMS related links to them. Some of the links are to his website, but most are to other resources his audience may find useful. He also sprinkles in just a bit of what he’s doing personally. This is the method I’ve chosen for my own Twitter account. WIN

Examples:

Local Band(name removed) – I see a ton of band accounts on Twitter. Most of them just tweet where they will be playing over and over. This account is like many band accounts and never gives a shoutout to fans. Aren’t the fans the ones who matter the most when you’re in a band? FAIL

Examples:

Come see us play at The Battle of the Bands!

T-shirts now for sale on our website. Only $19 each!

Visit our website and buy our CD. Available Tuesday!

@NickMcD – Nick from McDonald’s usually appears whenever somebody has tweeted about McDonald’s. Always searching for McDonald’s mentions, he’s there for support and tries to rectify negative situations with customers. WIN

Examples:

To sum up, here are the rules any business on Twitter should follow:

Dos

Engage with customers by throwing out a mention.

Promote yourself no more than 20% of the time.

Give followers a reason to see what you have to say.

Search for your business name to see who mentioned you. Try to connect with them good or bad.